Shay Given recalls his sleepless build up to Ireland's Iran mission

Shay Given recalls his sleepless build up to Ireland's Iran mission

Playoffs are far from a new thing for Ireland of course for major tournaments.

As the Denmark 2018 World Cup playoff first leg approaches, we got three Irishmen of playoffs past together on stage at our RDS Roadshow with Carlsberg: Kenny Cunningham, Shay Given and our own Kevin Kilbane.

One that sprung to mind was the tie against Iran to get to the 2002 FIFA World Cup when Ireland won the home leg 2-0 and then lost 1-0 in Tehran as the Boys in Green squeezed through to Korea and Japan.

Given recalled some of his key interventions over the two games.

"In Iran, I'd a couple of big saves especially one in the second half of the first leg down to my left and then I think after about 70 minutes out there [in Tehran], there were 100,000 men, it was like a mad atmosphere. They were going nuts and throwing all sorts of stuff at us on the pitch," he recalled.

"Had they scored then with 20 minutes to go it could have been hairy but just the realisation after the Iran game, you know we're going [to the World Cup] and the celebrations in the changing room, albeit it was just water because there was no alcohol allowed in the country, we're spraying water like it's champagne. But great memories."

Cunningham remembered that it was one of the first trips that their Ireland team brought their own chef, while Given recalled a sleepless night before the game.

"I'm still awake at 4 o'clock in the morning so I had to go and see Mick Byrne, the physio and get a sleeping tablet off him. He gave me two sleeping tablets. I just couldn't sleep. The harder I tried, the worse I was getting and then the walk in the morning got binned and then I woke up at lunchtime or something for pre-match but the atmosphere out there [in Tehran], they were out there five hours before the game," said the Donegal man.

"We got off the bus, they were winging oranges and bricks and these sort of grenade things were going off. Yeah, it was pretty feisty."

Cunningham laughed at the bricks part and suggested "oranges and apples".

While that was an ultimately fruitful playoff, Cunningham did add: "As much as there were some good moments playing for Ireland it has to be said, we had some bitter disappointments as well. We all experienced them."